'We're not doing very well in fondleslab biz'

Samsung has 'fessed up to something that the industry already knew: punters are still not falling for the charms of its fondleslabs.

In a moment of candour at Mobile World Congress that Samsung product strategy exec Hankil Yoon is now possibly regretting, he admitted to CNET: "Honestly, we're not doing very well in the tablet market."

This is despite Samsung adopting the Gatling gun approach by firing different-sized tablets at consumers in a bid to unseat Apple from the top of the market.

According to a Q4 snapshot from IDC, Samsung sold 353,000 tabs into channels across Western Europe, taking a market share of 8 per cent compared to 3.3 million units from Apple and a whopping 70 per cent market share.

Other vendors are even further behind.

The continuing patent disputes with Apple have not helped sales but that alone is not to blame, said Eszter Morvay, IDC research manager.

"The first Android-based [Galaxy] was not right because of the small screen size and OS, the go to market [via the telco channel] was not right, the price wasn't right; basically Samsung didn't have the right strategy."

Telcos shifted a lot of netbooks but consumers catching fondleslab fever are content to use Wi-Fi at home or free hotspots rather than buying mobile broadband, said IDC.

"Operators don't know how to make money out of this [tablet] space," said Morvay. She said the traditional PC channel was better suited to selling tabs.

Yesterday Samsung confirmed the third-gen Galaxy Tab would arrive in the UK first before being rolled out worldwide next month. ®